Devastated by the 2010 Haitian earthquake,
15-year-old Magdalie’s world is turned upside
down. Despite losing her mother and being separated from her beloved cousin, she finds the strength
to survive in a chaotic and dangerous new world.

Told in the form of a report compiling e-mails,
IMs, and security footage, this chronicles the
journeys of the survivors after an interstellar catastrophe. Part Battlestar Galactica, part zombie
story, and part 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Five teens meet at freshman orientation and
promise to meet up again at graduation.

Kissing in America. By Margo Rabb. Harper,
$17.99 (9780062322371).

After the boy Eva falls in love with moves to Los
Angeles, she finagles a way for her and her best
friend, Anna, to take a bus trip from New York
City to California to visit him.

Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys).

By Amy Spalding. Little, Brown/Poppy, $18
(9780316371520).

Riley makes a pact with her friend to add some
romance to their lives and documents the whole
thing in a secret notebook.

The Last Time We Say Goodbye. By Cynthia
Hand. Harper Teen, $17.99 (9780062318473).

After her younger brother, Tyler, commits suicide, Lex struggles with the grief, a family that has
fallen apart, the sudden distance between her and
her friends, and memories of Tyler that still feel
all too real.

After enduring his father’s suicide, his own suicide attempt, broken friendships, and more in the
Bronx projects, Aaron Soto, 16, is already considering the Leteo Institute’s memory-alteration
procedure when his new friendship with Thomas
turns to unrequited love.

Out of Darkness. By Ashley Hope Pérez.
Carolrhoda/Lab, $18.99 (9781467742023).

The real-life tragedy of the 1937 explosion at
a school in East Texas is the backdrop for this
gut-wrenching story of inspiring love and vicious
racism. A 2016 Printz Honor Book.

Carson Smith moves to Montana for the summer to spend time with his dying, estranged
father. On his first day, he meets Aisha, a girl who’s
in trouble for being a lesbian. Together, they make
a discovery that sets them off on a journey across
multiple states. The 2016 Stonewall Book Award
winner.

Razorhurst. By Justine Larbalestier. Soho Teen,

$18.99 (9781616955441).

Set in a gritty town in 1932 Sydney, Austra-lia, this tale follows two female orphans as theysurvive murders, gang wars, and ghosts over thecourse of one weekend.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here. By Patrick Ness.
Harper Teen, $17.99 (9780062403162).

With prom and graduation weeks away, Mikey
and his friends just want to enjoy their final days
together, but another story is unfolding, one that
involves their classmates, a mysterious blue light,
and the end of the world.

Rook. By Sharon Cameron. Scholastic, $17.99
(9780545675994).

In the distant future after a polar shift has
destroyed all technology, Sophia has been helping political prisoners escape their executions by
working as the Red Rook. But to save her family
from ruin, she must marry wealthy Rene—who
has secrets of his own.

The Alex Awards, administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards trust, honor the top 10 adult books published during
the previous year with appeal to readers between the ages of 12 and 18. The full, vetted list of the
nominations can be found on the YALSA website at www.ala.org/yalsa/alex-awards.

ALEX AWARDS, 2016

All Involved. By Ryan Gattis. Ecco, $27.99
(9780062378798).

Los Angeles, 1992: in the chaos of a rioting city, between settling scores and surviving
another day, 18 young men and women—
gangbangers, a nurse, an artist, a dreamer—give
intense and sometimes brutal voice to their
complex human experiences.

Between the World and Me. By Ta-Nehisi Coates. Spiegel & Grau, $24
(9780812993547).

Coates writes to his 15-year-old son about
the inborn hazards of being black in America
and his own intellectual, political, and emotional confrontation with the need to live fully,
even in the face of racialist culture.

Bones & All. By Camille DeAngelis.

St. Martin’s, $24.99 (9781250046505).

Sixteen-year-old Maren literally eats the ones
who love her, bones and all. When her mother
abandons her, Maren sets out to find the father
she has never met, hoping he can help her understand why she is a monster.

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. By
David Wong. St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne,
$25.99 (9781250040190).

Zoey never had much ambition beyond being a barista, but when her father leaves her in
control of the lawless city of Tabula Ra$a, she
goes from steaming milk to slaying supervillains.

Girl at War. By Sara Novic. Random, $26

(9780812996340).

Ana’s early life was ravaged by the 1991 Balkan wars. Now a college student, Ana relives
her war and its consequences as she unravels
the mystery of herself and the meaning of
home.

Half the World. By Joe Abercrombie. Del
Rey, $26 (9780804178426).

A bloodthirsty girl and a reluctant warrior are
recruited by a cunning minister for a mission
that will either save or doom their kingdom.

Humans of New York: Stories.By Brandon
Stanton. Illus. by the author. St. Martin’s,
$29.99 (9781250058904).

In pictures and interviews that captivate,
puzzle, and reveal, photojournalist Stanton
presents an immeasurable range of human
emotions and perspectives. The portraits draw
in readers, while their subjects’ words invoke
wonder and celebrate humanity’s variety.

Adults have disappeared, and Ben Schiller
is trying to keep things together until their return in this unsettling graphic novel. A series of
mysterious deaths may be a sign of impending
doom for Alexandria’s troubled kids.

Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey
from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League.
By Dan-el Padilla Peralta. Penguin, $27.95
(9781594206528).

Overstaying his visa in the U.S. before he
was in kindergarten, Peralta joined other young
DREAM Act scholars to erase his illegal status.
His humor, wisdom, success, and very American
boyhood smash anti-immigration stereotypes.

Mercy, a high-school basketball star, lives
under the thumb of her grandmother, a fierce
believer in Y2K as the apocalypse. The year
1999 alters Mercy’s life in a small Texas refinery
town and gives her a future beyond it.